Traditional webcams for face-to-face video conferencing, on a computer, are customarily placed above, below, or occasionally to the sides of the participant's computer monitor. As a result of the placement of the webcam, the video image of the participant as seen by the other party does not appear to be looking directly at the other party. This offset is due to the participant looking at the on-screen image of the other party, which is typically located some distance from the webcam. For example, when the webcam is placed above the participant's monitor, the other party sees the participant looking down.
Video conferencing participants can avoid this problem by looking directly at the camera, but this is very unnatural, as the normal conversational impulse is to look at the face of the person to whom one is speaking Therefore, the usual situation in video conferencing is that the participants see each other but do not look into each other's eyes—they do not make eye contact. This lack of eye contact actually makes videoconferencing less effective. Thus, there is a need to conduct videoconferences where the users can establish eye contact and still view the other party.